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2018-05

A joyous Shvues (Shavuot) to you!

Celebrate the giving of the Toyrehbeginning the evening of Saturday, May 19. Customs include staying up all night to learn, and eating milkhiks (dairy) such as cheese blintzes, kugel, ice cream, pizza, and, of course, cheesecake.

If you have ever wondered, "Why cheesecake?," check out this article in The Nosher. It includes 31 recipes for cheesecake.

Also, a freylekhn lag boymer, i.e. Happy Lag b'Omer, this Thursday!

May His Memory Be A Blessing

The Bay Area's Yiddish world lost a treasure when Arje Shaw died suddenly in March. An émigré from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Arje came to New York City as a child with his parents and sister fro m a German displacement camp after the Second World War. After a career in social work (including ti me as director of a JCC), he became a writer, playwright, producer, and performer.

In 2001, his best known play, "The Gathering," was produced at The Cort Theater on Broadway starring Hal Linden, following the off-Broadway production with Theodore Bikel and Jesse Eisenberg. Once he and his wife Esther moved to the Bay Area, he jumped into Yiddish life, including singing as part of Di Megileh and in the Nigunim Chorus, teaching "How to Write Funny" workshops, actively participating in KlezCalifornia's Flisik Yidish Salon, and serving as MC for a KlezCalifornia Cabaret by the Bay.

We've heard that using sheet music for klezmer is sacrilegious and disrespectful. But can it be done? This class will explore the ways that klezmer sheet music can be misleading, and provide advice for what to do when faced with a piece of music that's written down (Hint: we can do more than putting it in the trash!).

Russian immigrant Matilda Rabinowitz (1887-1963) was a feminist, labor organizer, and mother. In her memoir, she describes life in the Pale of Settlement and tells the story of her journey to America, her political awakening and work as an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and, in her personal life, of a turbulent romance and struggle to support herself and her child. Matilda's granddaughter, Robbin Légère Henderson, added commentary and illustrations for "Immigrant Girl, Radical Woman," recently published by Cornell University Press.

Kishinev's 1903 riot seized the imagination of the international public and became the prototype for what would now become known as a pogrom. It would provide a crucial impetus to developments as far flung as Zionism, the NAACP, and the first version of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

Professor Zipperstein will discuss his much-anticipated new work on the Kishinev pogrom.